Posts

Interim Coach Addresses Media

/in /by

Barely 12-hours after the Penn State Board of Trustees ousted football coach Joe Paterno, his replacement was thrust into the media spotlight.  Interim coach Tom Bradley says he takes the job with mixed emotions.  “I grieve for the victims, I grieve for the families,” Bradley said as he made note of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal that has rocked the entire PSU community.  “I think you should know where our team is toward this whole issue, it’s toward those children, toward their families.  Our thoughts and our prayers are with them.” 

Bradley played for Penn State in the late 1970s, and had served on Joe Paterno’s staff ever since.  As a defensive coach he used to work under Jerry Sandusky, but Bradley declined to comment on that relationship due to the ongoing investigation. 

Bradley did say that Joe Paterno has meant more to him than any person besides his own father:  tombradley-joepa

Penn State has three more games on the 2011 schedule, and is still in the running to play in the first Big Ten Championship Game on December 3rd.  This Saturday’s contest against Nebraska is the final home game of the season.

Paterno Fired, Spanier Out

/in /by

It took just five days for the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal to rock Penn State University to its core.  Just after 10 o’clock Wednesday night, the announcement came that Graham Spanier was out as PSU president and Joe Paterno was relieved of his duties as head football coach.  “These decisions were made after careful deliberations and in the best interests of the university as a whole,” said Board of Trustees Vice Chairman John Surma. 

In a statement, Spanier called it an honor to serve Penn State for 16 years as president.  Spanier says he was stunned to learn that any predatory act might have occurred in a university facility.  “The acts of no one person should define this university.  Penn State is defined by the traditions, loyalty and integrity of hundreds of thousands of students, alumni and employees,” the statement continued.

Joe Paterno

Joe Paterno

84-year-old Coach Joe Paterno had been at Penn State for 61-years.  In his 46-years as head coach, he racked up 409-victories, more than any other coach in Division I college football history.  Paterno’s complete statement reads:

“I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case.  I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief.

I have come to work every day for the last 61 years with one clear goal in mind: To serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have been entrusted to my care. I have the same goal today.

That’s why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season. At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can.

This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life.  With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.

My goals now are to keep my commitments to my players and staff and finish the season with dignity and determination. And then I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help this University.”

The Penn State Board of Trustees has named Dr. Rodney Erickson as the interim president.  Erickson previously served as vice president and provost.  Long-time Paterno assistant coach Tom Bradley has been named interim head football coach.  The Penn State football team plays host to Nebraska this Saturday.  It is their final home game of the season.

Paterno to Retire, Corbett to Address PSU Board

/in /by

 

Joe Paterno

Joe Paterno

His 46th season at the helm of the Penn State football program will be Joe Paterno’s last.  The 84-year-old, Hall of Fame coach released this statement today:

I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case.  I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief.  I have come to work every day for the last 61 years with one clear goal in mind: To serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have been entrusted to my care. I have the same goal today.

That’s why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season. At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can.

This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life.  With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.  My goals now are to keep my commitments to my players and staff and finish the season with dignity and determination. And then I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help this University.

The news broke as Governor Tom Corbett was wrapping up a news conference at which he signed a new texting while driving ban in the Keystone State.  On the way out the door, Corbett said it was unfortunate this is happening under the cloud of the Sandusky sex abuse scandal. 

Gov. Corbett is in a unique position in that he was Attorney General at the time the grand jury investigation began in 2009.  As governor, he’s currently a key player on the Penn State Board of Trustees.  While Corbett is withholding many of his thoughts on the details of the investigation until after he’s had the chance to address the board at Friday’s regularly scheduled meeting, he does say they must act swiftly and firmly.  “Penn State’s a great university, we know that,” Corbett explains.  “Something not very good happened.  We have to maintain that they’re a great university and take the bull by the horn, and fix it.” 

Corbett was responsible for implementing the Child Predator Unit in the Attorney General’s Office, and he did not mince words when talking about child sex abuse on Wednesday.  “He who preys on a child is the worst type of person in the world as far as I am concerned.” 

Gov. Tom Corbett

Gov. Corbett talks to the media about Penn State and Joe Paterno.

Advocates Hope Scandal Serves as Wake-up Call

/in /by

One-time Penn State coaching icon Jerry Sandusky is accused of sexually assaulting young boys for more than a decade, and two university officials are charged with perjury and failure to report.  Head coach Joe Paterno’s weekly news conference was canceled on Tuesday, only fueling the speculation that he could be removed from the post he’s held for 46 years.

Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance Director of Training Tina Phillips was shocked and horrified when she first learned of the scandal.  “My heart goes out to the victims and their families,” she says, adding that that anyone can report the suspicion of child abuse.  “To do so all you need to do is contact ChildLine at 1-800-932-0313,they’re there 24-hours a day, seven days a week.”    

The Penn State Board of Trustees has already announced its intention to form a task force to review the university’s policies and procedures concerning the safety of children.  The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape has already reached out to PSU to offer its assistance and expertise.  “it’s just critical that they have the experts of child sexual abuse at the table when that is formed,” says PCAR CEO Delilah Rumburg.  “I hope that the good that comes from this is that it is a wake-up call to every adult in communities throughout the commonwealth, or anywhere else, that we have the responsibility to protect our children.”

Paterno’s Weekly News Conference Nixed

/in /by

Roughly an hour before Coach Joe Paterno’s weekly news conference was to begin, word came down that the plug had been pulled.  This comes as news media from far and wide raise questions in the wake of the sex abuse scandal surrounding former PSU coaching icon Jerry Sandusky.  Paterno also missed Tuesday afternoon’s Big Ten coaches’ teleconference. 

The statement from Penn State Athletics read: “Due to the on-going legal circumstances centered around the recent allegations and charges, we have determined that today’s press conference cannot be held and will not be re-scheduled.”

An earlier advisory from Penn State Athletics read: “Media planning to attend Tuesday’s Penn State Football weekly teleconference are advised that that primary focus of the teleconference is to answer questions related to Penn State’s Senior Day game with Nebraska this Saturday. Head coach Joe Paterno and any Penn State Football student-athletes in attendance will be answering questions about the Nebraska game, Penn State’s season thus far and other topics related to the current college football season.”

Word of Penn State’s woes has even spread to the White House.  During a stop in suburban Philadelphia on Tuesday, President Barack Obama began his comments with an indirect reference to the PSU football program.  “I was told not to mention football at all,” Obama said amid some laughter and a few groans from the audience.  “So I’m not going to say anything about football while I’m here, because I know this is a sensitive subject.”    

While the 84-year-old Joe Paterno is not a target in the ongoing grand jury probe of Jerry Sandusky’s sex abuse allegations, speculation of Paterno’s ouster has already begun.  Just last month, Paterno became the winningest coach in Division I college football history.  He’s been leading the renowned Penn State football program for 46 years.

Attorney General Speaks Out in Sandusky Sex Abuse Scandal

/in /by
Jerry Sandusky

Jerry Sandusky

The allegations against 67-year-old Jerry Sandusky, the former defensive coordinator at Penn State, span roughly a decade from the late 1990s through 2009.  The 23-page grand jury presentment goes into graphic detail of the alleged sexual assaults of young boys, both while Sandusky was coaching and after his retirement.  Attorney General Linda Kelly says they’ve identified six of the eight young victims discussed in the presentment, all of whom Sandusky met through his involvement in The Second Mile, a charity he founded in 1977.

Equally significant to the sexual assault charges Sandusky faces, Kelly says, are the alleged roles of two school administrators charged with perjury and failure to report.  “Their inaction likely allowed a child predator to continue to victimize children for many many years,” Kelly says. 

Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and Senior Vice President Gary Shultz each face one count of perjury and one count of failure to report.

“This is not a case about football, it’s not a case about universities,” says State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan, “It’s a case about children who have had their innocence stolen from them, and a culture that did nothing to stop it.” 

 

Administrators Arraigned:

Tim Curley

Tim Curley

While Sandusky will be prosecuted in Centre County, where the alleged assaults took place, Curley and Shultz will be prosecuted in Dauphin County, where the alleged perjury took place.  Both were arraigned in a suburban Harrisburg magistrate’s office Monday afternoon. 

Curley’s lawyer, Caroline Roberto, proclaimed her client innocent and says they will vigorously fight the charges in court.  She calls perjury prosecutors’ charge of last resort.  “They charge it when they can’t prove the person did anything wrong.”  Roberto calls the duty to report charge a summary offense, similar to a speeding ticket.  Under the law, Roberto says the duty to report didn’t even apply to the situation at Penn State. 

Gary Shultz

Gary Shultz

The Attorney General’s office disagrees.  “Given the circumstances here, with information that was provided to top administrators about a sexual assault in the locker room, on the Penn State campus, we feel very confident that those administrators are responsible under the law,” says spokesman Nils Frederiksen. 

 

Paterno Not a Target:

Asked about coach Joe Paterno’s grand jury testimony, Attorney General Linda Kelly says the 84-year-old coach has been cooperative and is not a target at this point.  The grand jury report indicates that a grad student who witnessed a sexual assault in 2002 called Paterno to share what he had seen.  “We believe that under the statute he had an obligation to report it to school administrators, and he did that,” Kelly says of Paterno’s involvement.

In a statement, Paterno says he’s shocked and saddened by the allegations contained in the grand jury report.  “I understand that people are upset and angry, but let’s be fair and let the legal process unfold,” the statement reads.  “In the meantime, I would ask all Penn Staters to continue to trust in what that name represents, continue to pursue their lives every day with high ideals and not let these events shake their beliefs nor who they are.” 

Attorney Genral Linda Kelly, Jerry Sandusky

The media gathered en masse at Attorney General Linda Kelly's capitol news conference.

Paterno Nears Another Milestone

/in /by

In his 46th year as Penn State’s head coach, Joe Paterno has already won more football games than any coach in major (FBS) college football history.  A win tomorrow at Northwestern would tie Paterno with legendary Grambling coach Eddie Robinson for the Division I record with 408 wins.  “I got to know Eddie a little bit… and he was a delightful person and obviously did a fantastic job at Grambling,” Paterno says of the late Eddie Robinson.

The accolades may keep piling up for Penn State’s Hall of Fame coach, but Paterno likes to keep his focus on the field.  That mindset seems to have rubbed off on his team too.  “I don’t really think we think too much about the JoePa records,” says senior safety Drew Astorino of Edinboro, PA.  “We just try to go out and get a win every single week.”   

But even a win tomorrow wouldn’t get Paterno very close to the NCAA record for all divisions.  John Gagliardi of Division III Saint John’s University in Minnesota has 480 wins to his credit.  And Gagliardi, like Paterno, is still going.

Marcellus Shale

New Database Will Track Water Quality in Marcellus Shale Drilling Areas

/in /by

A new database will help track water quality in areas affected by Marcellus Shale drilling.  Development of the database is being led by Penn State researchers.  It’s funded with a 750 thousand dollar grant from the National Science Foundation. 

Penn State Geo sciences professor Susan Brantley says the web site is already being set up and they’ve started collecting data. The Director of Penn State’s Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and principal investigator says it should be on line by early this winter. 

The database will collect information from government agencies, researchers and citizens groups that are sampling water quality. Brantley says they want to make data available to everyone, so people can share it, look at other people’s data, compare it and think about it.  She says they hope to study it a scientists and work with citizens to help them learn how to look at water quality data and understand what it means.

Brantley says with the Marcellus Shale industry developing as fast as it is, citizens want to be able to look at their water chemistry and water quality and make sure any impacts are kept to a minimum.  She says some environmental impacts happen with almost any industry.

Brantley believes the database will be valuable to citizens and the drilling industry. She says there’s no reason why the gas companies want to have problems in Pennsylvania.     

In addition to Penn State, Pitt, Bucknell and Dickinson College are collaborating.  Dickinson scientists have been training citizens in water sample collection.

Brantley says she’s excited that she’ll be working with some of the citizen scientist groups.  She will help them put their information into a larger database and determine what it means. She says they’ll be looking at all of the data together to try to understand what impact there is, if there is impact from the shale drilling.

Grant Helps Fund Groundbreaking Breast Cancer Research

/in /by

A naturally-occurring virus has been discovered, which successfully kills breast cancer cells in Dr. Craig Meyers’ laboratory at the Penn State College of Medicine.  “It appears that this virus is signaling the cells to turn on themselves and basically commit suicide,” Dr. Meyers says.  “And this virus is inducing it only in the cancer cells, but not in the normal cells.”   

In 2007, the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition (PBCC) provided Dr. Meyers’ team with $35,000 dollars in seed money.  “We were ecstatic to know that money was put to such good use, and at the same time, to know that we had a hand in it,” says Kevin Smith with the PBCC.  At this week’s 2011 PA Breast Cancer Coalition Conference, Dr. Meyers was presented with a new, $100,000 dollar grant to help continue his research.  Smith calls it the largest single contribution in the PBCC’s 18-year history. 

The adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2) is yielding promising results, but it is not yet to the stage of being tested on humans.  “So far in mice, our results in mice are looking really good,” says Dr. Meyers.  “The tumors we’ve made in mice are really just dissolving when we put this virus in.”  Meyers knows there’s much additional research to be done, but the early results are so promising that he says they can’t move fast enough. 

Smith says it’s amazing to have this kind of research underway in the Keystone State.  He says it shows that research dollars do matter.  “Even with the economy the way it is, we need to continue the research, because that is how we are going to find a cure.”  October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Coach Paterno Ready for 2011

/in /by

Unfazed by a recent practice field collision with one of his wide receivers, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno is eager to kick-off the 2011 season.  “How do I feel?  I feel, great except I’m in a lot of pain,” Paterno said as he conducted his annual media day news conference from a golf cart.  “If I told you I could get up here and run around, no I can’t.  But, in about eight, nine days I should be able to do everything without some guy riding me around.”  

The 84-year-old coach expects to be walking the sidelines during week one of the college football season, when the Indiana State Sycamores come calling in Beaver Stadium.  Paterno’s shoulder and pelvis were injured in the August 7th practice field accident, but he stresses the x-rays show no fractures.  The doctors tell Paterno he should be 100% in eight to ten days. 

This will be the Hall of Famer’s 46th season as PSU’s head football coach and he shows no signs of stopping.  “The day I wake up in the morning and I say, hey, do I have to go to practice again – I’ll know it’s time to get out of it,” Paterno says.